Key to the City (film)

For other uses, see Key to the City (disambiguation).

Key to the City is a 1950 American romantic comedy film starring Clark Gable and Loretta Young as mayors who meet in San Francisco, and despite their contrasting personalities and views, fall in love.

Key to the City
Directed by	George Sidney
Screenplay by	Robert Riley Crutcher
Story by	Albert Beich
Produced by	Z. Wayne Griffin
Starring	Clark Gable Loretta Young
Cinematography	Harold Rosson
Edited by	James E. Newcom
Music by	Bronislau Kaper
Production company	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date	February 2, 1950 (1950-02-02)
Running time	99-101 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1.5 million[1]
Box office	$2.9 million[1]

Plot

Steve Fisk (Clark Gable) is the mayor of a municipality called Puget City. At a convention in San Francisco, he mistakes Clarissa Standish (Loretta Young), the mayor of Wenonah, Maine, for a "balloon dancer" he was expecting.

A former longshoreman, Steve feels that Clarissa might be too refined a woman for him, but he is definitely attracted. He needs to be careful, however, because a crooked city councilman Les Taggart (Raymond Burr) would love to have any hint of scandal to use against Steve politically back home.

Steve proceeds to inadvertently get Clarissa arrested twice - first after a brawl in a Chinatown restaurant, then on their way to a costume party. A photographer clicks a picture of Clarissa making it appear she is at the police station for public drunkenness. She does not think it funny, but her uncle, Judge Silas Standish (Lewis Stone), is privately delighted that the prim Clarissa seems to finally be loosening up.

The balloon dancer, Sheila (Marilyn Maxwell), shows up, causing Clarissa to conclude incorrectly that Steve is going to see her. And she is irate when Steve disappears, unaware that he had to hurry home for a hastily called council vote. The truth is, Steve wants to marry Clarissa, and cannot wait to present her with the key to his city.

Cast

• Clark Gable as Steve Fisk
• Loretta Young as Clarissa Standish
• Frank Morgan as Fire Chief Duggan
• Marilyn Maxwell as Sheila the "Atom Dancer"
• Raymond Burr as Les Taggart
• James Gleason as Sergeant Hogan
• Lewis Stone as Judge Silas Standish
• Raymond Walburn as Mayor Billy Butler
• Pamela Britton as Miss Unconscious
• Zamah Cunningham as Mrs. Butler
• Clinton Sundberg as Clerk
• Marion Martin as Emmy
• Bert Freed as Emmy's Husband
• Emory Parnell as Council Chairman
• Clara Blandick as Liza
• Eula Morgan as Police Matron

Notes

It was the final film role of Frank Morgan and Clara Blandick (both of whom were best known for their roles in The Wizard of Oz (1939)).

This film paired Gable and Young for the first time since Call of the Wild (1935), when their tryst produced a secret daughter, Judy Lewis.

During filming of Key to the City, or after its completion (circa 1949-50), Gable visited the Young household and spoke with Judy Lewis for the only time in Lewis' life. Lewis was fifteen at the time and did not know of Gable's role in her conception. When she was 23, Lewis' fiancee told her of the commonly held rumor around Hollywood about Gable being her father. Shortly after Gable died in 1960, Lewis confronted her mother with the rumor and Young confirmed the truth.^[2][3][4]

In 1999, shortly before her death, Young confirmed to her biographer that Gable was the father of Judith Lewis.

Reception

According to MGM records, the film earned $2,296,000 in the US and Canada, and $677,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $298,000.^[1]